I've talked in the past about getting a pressure cooker to be able to can food, but that semi-idle thought is boiling over at the moment, so to speak, as we are a little inundated with stuff that will spoil before long. In a bit of uncoordinated planning, I made three quarts of chili over the weekend, and MrsBlue roasted a half-dozen chicken breasts last night (so four are leftover). This all goes in the fridge along with a quart of my nascent attempt at a Bolognese ragů, a quart of marinara sauce made by MrsBlue, and one or two other things I can't recall off the top of my head. So the pressure is on for us to finish this off before it goes bad, and certainly before either of us cooks anything else. Oh well, the food is all excellent, so we'll just have to "suffer."

Verno wrote on Jan 28, 2013, 15:53:Despite the port being shit (fixed up with DSFix thankfully), that's a great deal. I've beaten Dark Souls 3 times, PvP'd a bunch and I'm still not tired of it. Game has the best vertical level design I've ever seen, some of the shortcuts are ingenious.

What's DSFix, Vern?

Makes the port bearable, you can specify custom resolutions and FPS, etc. There's a mouse fix as well. It is a really awful port without those things.

Verno wrote on Jan 28, 2013, 15:53:Despite the port being shit (fixed up with DSFix thankfully), that's a great deal. I've beaten Dark Souls 3 times, PvP'd a bunch and I'm still not tired of it. Game has the best vertical level design I've ever seen, some of the shortcuts are ingenious.

What's DSFix, Vern?

"There are two kinds of people in this world; people who love delis, and people you shouldn’t associate with.” - Damon Runyan

Despite the port being shit (fixed up with DSFix thankfully), that's a great deal. I've beaten Dark Souls 3 times, PvP'd a bunch and I'm still not tired of it. Game has the best vertical level design I've ever seen, some of the shortcuts are ingenious.

Freeze the chili and ragu. It's good for months, though the sooner consumed the better. When I make a sauce or stew or the like I always consume half and freeze the other half for the following week or week after but it doesn't stay in there too long. You can also freeze any cooked meat though fowl works best. If I have parts of a carcass and meat left over from a chicken or turkey I'll toss it in the freezer to make soup/stew out of it.

I've always found that freezing cooked meat - unless it's already basting in something like a sauce - won't taste as good on it's own so needs to be used in stuff like soups, tacos, sammys, etc. It's the best way to be thrifty. Just make sure to double wrap foil or cling, then into freezer bags.

You can also dehydrate stuff like ragus. Check Youtube to see how to make full on freeze dried meals - spaghetti and meat sauce, almost anything - it's really cool actually. This is a great little food dehydrator with which you make freeze dried meals, jerked meat and dehydrated fruit. They kick ass! So much cheaper and healthier. And again tons of instructional vids on Youtube.

"There are two kinds of people in this world; people who love delis, and people you shouldn’t associate with.” - Damon Runyan

sauron wrote on Jan 28, 2013, 10:11:You can probably freeze the chili and ragu, and the marinara too. I don't think the chicken breasts would fare so well if frozen - might end up tough and tasteless - but I'm not sure.

What Sauron said - freeze the sauce and chili, eat the chicken for lunch and dinner (chicken sandwiches!). I like to freeze my homemade sauce in 1 to 1.5 cup glass tuppers and chili in 2 to 2.5 cup ones, perfect for one meal. If you move one from the freezer to the fridge 24 hours before, it will be thawed by the time you want to use it, and reheat much faster.

I finally tried a technique I found on the web for the best, juiciest roast chicken with the crispest skin ever and it did indeed deliver on its promise. Roast the 4-5 lb chicken at 500 for 10 minutes a pound. That's it. No brining, no flipping over, no turning down the temp. No nothing. You can season with salt and pepper and stuff the cavity if you want.

Downside is your oven will smoke a little from the splattering burning grease and it can make a bit of a mess. So turn turn off the fire alarms and set your oven to autoclean before you go to bed. After 30 minutes I opened the doors and windows and turned on the fan. The smoke wasn't that bad.

So it was fantastic chicken, super duper juicy, but really who wants to deal with the smoke and grease. I'm not sure if I'll do it again.

sauron wrote on Jan 28, 2013, 10:11:You can probably freeze the chili and ragu, and the marinara too. I don't think the chicken breasts would fare so well if frozen - might end up tough and tasteless - but I'm not sure.

Chicken is surprisingly one of the best things to freeze, doesn't affect the taste and lasts forever if you use a decent freezer bag. I eat chicken as a protein component for easily half of my meals in a week, I usually take out 5 frozen chicken breasts on a Saturday night, let them defrost in the fridge then cook them for the week on Sunday.

I caught just a bit of the Pro Bowl on the tv last night, and did get to see Eli pass Rudolph.....It looked like a playground play that worked perfectly, as Rudolph was doing his route, he looked back and Eli waved him down the field, then threw a perfect pass that Rudolph effortlessly caught and ran down the field.....I couldn't help but think both players wished they had eachother in regular season.......and I was sitting there wishing we had a real quarterback....

We freeze chicken breast all the time (although this is before cooking). It keeps for much longer and between freezing and then later cooking you kill just about everything known to man germ wise. Doesnt really effect the taste. However for cooked i'd assume it would be fine as well (hense the frozen food industry).

I made three quarts of chili over the weekend, and MrsBlue roasted a half-dozen chicken breasts last night (so four are leftover). This all goes in the fridge along with a quart of my nascent attempt at a Bolognese ragů, a quart of marinara sauce made by MrsBlue, and one or two other things I can't recall off the top of my head